Chicken Attacked by Hawk w No Injuries… Now what?

[briannamonique16]

Heard some commotion only to find a hawk pinning my chicken. Luckily I scared it away and now they’re in the run. She only has a few feathers plucked but zero injuries. My concern is, do hawks carry diseases? Should we not eat the eggs for awhile? I know she probably won’t lay eggs for a bit because she’s traumatized but I’m wondering if the flock will be affected by this. Just wondering what I need to do now.

 

[Beloved Turkey]

I don’t know anything about deseases, but I have three birds nursed I y he run and left overnight before I found them and all acted like normal, so in my experience the rest of the flock probably will be fine, but I’d keep an eye an the one who was attacked

 

[Debbie292d]

Heard some commotion only to find a hawk pinning my chicken. Luckily I scared it away and now they’re in the run. She only has a few feathers plucked but zero injuries. My concern is, do hawks carry diseases? Should we not eat the eggs for awhile? I know she probably won’t lay eggs for a bit because she’s traumatized but I’m wondering if the flock will be affected by this. Just wondering what I need to do now.

I wouldn't worry too much about any illnesses although I'd keep her guaranteed a few days to be sure. I'd worry more about lice as that hawk probably had lice.

Awesome story! WTG!!

 

[DonyaQuick]

I don't think there would be any issue with the eggs from a predator attack if the bird is physically fine. I'd be more worried about the hen having some kind of hidden injury from the encounter rather than having caught a disease.

Raptors can carry diseases and parasites that can be transmitted to poultry, but it shouldn't affect the eggs to my knowledge. Probably the most likely thing to watch out for would be fowl mites/lice since any wild bird and carry those and one just rubbed itself all over your chicken, which is how those things spread. For the next week, periodically lift up feathers around the vent, tail, and back of the neck right behind the head and ears - basically places where chickens have the most trouble grooming, since those are where those bugs like to go. Look for little black or red moving dots (mites), or larger elonage wigglies (lice) running along the skin or feathers. If you see those, permethrin dust gets rid of them (very easy for lice, but fowl/feather mites IME can be a bigger pain and equire more treatments). Permethrin does not affect eggs.

Raptors can catch some respertory diseases that affect chickens, but from what I've read of that, raptors that have those sorts of illnesses typically catch it from prey rather than the other way around. However, if your chickens are out and about and having potential environmental contact with other wild birds, the risk there is no greater than from any other bird that gets close to your chickens or areas where they forage.